The big stuff

As I mentioned in my last post, our July was pretty busy. The weekend after camping in the Keys, Caleb was baptized at a beach baptism our church put on.  

As we were getting ready to cross over the dunes, we heard a familiar voice say "Hey, wait a minute.  I know that family."  Turns out it was the dad of one of the boys Caleb trained with in tennis last spring.  Last time we saw this family was at a local tournament last fall.  So it had been a while.  Anyway, we figured we would head down to the shore and see if we could find the boy, Sam.

Before meeting up with the crowd, we stopped to snap a few photos.

After singing a couple of worship songs, all the people wanting to be baptized gathered near the microphone so they could share a brief testimony for why they chose to be baptized that day.

Although he said he wasn't prepared to say something, Caleb stood up there and shared how he was saved four years ago and had decided it was time to be baptized and that he wants to continue to praise Jesus.  Be.still.my.heart.

When everyone who wanted to share was finished, several lines formed leading into the ocean. Caleb got in line with his friend Sam.  And those would be sweat droplets pouring down from my precious son's face...at 9am.  Yes, he sweats. A lot.

Patrick and I are so proud his decision to make a public demonstration of the personal commitment to Christ he made four years ago (on Uncle Andy's birthday, as he likes to say.) Our prayer is that he continue to walk in the ways of the Lord all the days of his life.  Best decision ever.

So a few days later (and perhaps several years in the making), we finally filed our paperwork with the county courthouse to have all of the dumplings foreign adoptions recognized.  For those of you not familiar with this process, it's a way of giving our children Florida birth certificates, which will make their lives easier (like when they need to apply to college or obtain a marriage license). They won't have to do what I've been doing and that is presenting multiple Chinese documents every time I need to prove something on their behalf.  Let me tell you.  It's been a pain but one they won't have to endure, thankfully.

Well, we had the fortunate privilege of having one of Patrick's friends who is a county court judge conduct the hearing.  Usually, it is done in the judge's chambers.  However, he let us into the courtroom so the kids could experience it.  We also had the privilege of a friend of ours from church represent us.  So it was a very personal and special time.  After some time in the courtroom, we did head back to the judge's chambers.  And then we finally snapped a few quick photos.

After that big week, we went back to our regular summer schedule of tennis, swimming in the pool, and decluttering.  And soon, that summer schedule will be changing as we prepare to start school up in early August.  Caleb's day time tennis training definitely throws a wrench into my planning because the local schools don't start up for two more weeks.  That means they won't start evening training until then.  But although I may not like how it affects my homeschool scheduling, I sure do love our evenings together.  Tennis has no "season".  It's all year long, every week (and every day if you're Caleb.)  So having our summer evenings free has been such a treat- late evening swims or movies....it's been lovely.  This homeschooling mama is gonna be sad to see our summer end!

Getaway to the Keys

Well, I know our summer has been busy, but sheesh....I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last updated the blog.  I guess it's safe to say we have had a fun-filled July.  And I'm just now getting the chance to share it.  

Let me back up to a few weeks ago. We had been planning a little camping getaway to the Keys with our camping friends since, oh, last summer.  And well, the time finally arrived for us to hit the road.  We managed to get down there late Friday morning and promptly hit the water.  Well, we tried to anyway.

 See all that seaweed?  Well, it made it a bit of a pain to get in and out of the water.  Water shoes definitely helped minimize the ick factor.  But the shore is very shallow. So we had to walk quite a bit through the seaweed and then some until we finally got to water that was deep enough to relax in.  It was a chore but worth it.

  The kids played games back on shore too, like ring toss. And when the sun got too hot, they hung out at the restroom right across from our site.  See that space below?  Well, even I could stand up straight underneath.  So that provided some much needed shade at times for the kids (and me too.) lol

 Our campsites sat right along the shore.  It was a pretty amazing view.

The second day was more of the same.  When the kids weren't swimming, they were playing board games inside to stay cool.  Then, of course, they couldn't wait to get back out in the water.

 One of the kids managed to spot a tiny crab inside this sponge.  Can you find it? (Hint, it's almost in the middle among a dark patch.)

 Day three rolled around and was filled with more of the same- swimming and trying to keep cool.  One of the kids decided to hunt for coconuts.  She found four of them.  They were such a hit!  So delicious.  Poor Shail, though!  He was in charge of the cracking.  After the third one, he called it quits.   The sweat pouring off him made it look like he just took a dip in the ocean. It was that grueling.  In fact, I think he rinsed off under the outdoor shower right after I snapped these photos, clothes and all!

We had a short but lovely time in the Keys with our dear friends.  We always enjoy their company, no matter how brief our visits are.  And boy, we're so thankful that the mosquitos and no-see-ums gave us no trouble.  That was a shocker.

Well, after our trip to the Keys, we were busy celebrating Madeline's Family Day, Caleb's baptism, aaaand having all our dumplings foreign adoptions recognized in the state of Florida (so they can obtain Florida birth certificates.)  See, I told you we were busy around these parts.  So check back a little bit later for all the rest!

Surf fishing

Bright and early on Memorial Day, Patrick convinced us all to do some surf fishing.  We had hoped to beat the sunrise, but this mama was too tired from hosting Caleb's tennis buddies at the house all weekend when the boys were not playing in their tournament (which Caleb played very well in, by the way.)  Anyway, we arrived as the sun was waking up, and Patrick got to work setting up the rods.

 We had nothing biting for a while, but we did have a blue heron who thought he could hang around and try to steal our bait.  We wouldn't let him, though, so he had to fish for food himself.

 Eventually, Madeline managed to catch a catfish.  Caleb's expression is hilarious in the shot below.  He really didn't mind the fish.

 Once Patrick managed to unhook him, we decided to toss him over to the heron instead of back into ocean.  He snatched it right up. It took him a while to eat it, but he did. The kids got a kick out of that.

Then an old colleague of Patrick's spotted our family fishing while he was exercising on the beach and stopped to chat.  We hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was nice to catch up.

On a photography note, I enjoyed shooting the wildlife when we were at the beach but was bummed I didn't have my telephoto lens on me.  I just might have to break my personal rule of one lens only at the beach, at least when we're fishing.

Next weekend is going to be a big one for us.  Madeline has her spring recital for dance, and Caleb has his tennis state championships tournament.  Last year they fell on back-to-back weekends. This year we're not as fortunate.  We will be doing a lot of driving back and forth because Madeline will be performing both Friday night and Saturday night, while Caleb's tournament will be Saturday and Sunday.  Can you say busy?  Ugh.  I wish it wasn't.  But we're going to do our best to get each of our kids to their siblings event because it's just that important to us.  These are the biggest events of the year for them both.  It just plain stinks that it happens to be the same weekend.  It goes without saying that my camera will be seeing a lot of action though.  I better get my memory cards and batteries ready!